


i just wanna be with you

by hachimitsuto



Category: NCT (Band), Oh My Girl (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Crack, Enemies to Lovers, Ensemble Cast, F/M, High School Musical References
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-16
Updated: 2019-01-16
Packaged: 2019-10-10 23:31:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17435579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hachimitsuto/pseuds/hachimitsuto
Summary: If there's one thing Jiho hates the most in the world, it's Jaehyun."He's a person, Jiho. Not a thing," says Mingyu."Irrelevant."





	i just wanna be with you

**Author's Note:**

> a/n: the version of jaehyun in my head is made up of the funny tweets i've found of him and this jaehyun here is part of the product. loosely based on high school musical, and thanks to this fic i now have so much knowledge of hsm that i don't know what to do with.
> 
> special thanks to yaine and sapphy for all the support and help <3
> 
> note: edited on 18/4/2019 to accommodate my friend's need

If Kim Jiho had to pinpoint one thing she hates the most between overcooked ramyun that has turned soggy, Mingyu's voice when he tries to hit the high note in the shower every morning, and cockroaches, she would waste no second in choosing her answer: Jung Jaehyun.

 

That is why, when she finds his name on the list of shortlisted male lead candidates for the upcoming summer musical, she screams.

 

“Anger is not enough to express my feeling at this current moment,” says Jiho, crumpling the paper into a ball. She's about to drop it to the floor and stomp on it when Mingyu snatches it from her hand and flattens it out again.

 

“He has a good voice,” he offers, pinning the list back on the board. “I saw his audition.”

 

“First of all, I don’t care if he has a good voice,” she replies. A lie, because in her ideal world he’d sound like a wheezing rat. “Second of all, you did _what_?”

 

As though he’s caught the change in tone of her voice as a warning to keep his mouth shut, he feigns interest in the chess competition flyer and pretends not to hear her. She is too pissed to say or do anything, so she just groans loudly before stalking off to the cafeteria, where she finds Jung Jaehyun, sitting the center table surrounded by his band of boys. She approaches him.

 

“Hello, Jiho,” he says in that practiced good manner that always gets him into all their teachers’ favour and out of trouble, but only makes her want to gag, after he noticed her and turned around to face her. “To what do I honour your presence?”

 

There are many reasons why she avoids being in the same room as Jaehyun, let alone speak to him, and this is one of them. “What is the meaning of this?” she asks, crossing her arms.

 

He's silent for a minute, pretending he's thinking about what she's referring to. “Oh, you mean the summer musical?”

 

“I have no other business with you other than the summer musical.”

 

“What about it?”

 

Jiho's patience is running out, so she inhales deeply and focuses her annoyance in her right hand that she's balled into a fist. “Are you seriously asking? You _auditioned_ , not for just any role, but the lead character. That's what,” she says. “And don't you have basketball games to busy yourself with?”

 

“Am I not allowed to?” he asks almost too innocently, tilting his head aside. Maybe it'd work with someone else, but not her. “And about basketball, I have that sorted out so you don't need to worry.”

 

“I'm not worried, excuse you!” she fumes. “Also, wasn’t it last year at Minghao's birthday party when I heard you talk shit about theatre club? And this year you decided it's cool? Why, to make your college application look fancier?”

 

“I've always liked singing, didn't you know? I wanted to try something different for my final year, and the summer musical is perfect,” he replies. “Also, I never said anything bad about your club.”

 

That's bullshit, because Jiho remembers precisely how he said to Sicheng that he wasted his time and money for a play that was lamer than Twilight, and that it wouldn't be long until the theatre club's curtain call itself. She remembers because she had been the one to throw her slice of cake to his face.

 

“I hope your voice cracks and you wish the stage would swallow you whole, and when that happens, I'll be shoving the spotlight on you, just the way you like,” she says through her gritted teeth.

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately, things don't go as she wishes.

 

“You know what's worse than Jung Jaehyun's existence?” she wonders aloud while Mingyu keeps himself busy picking chicken pieces from her salad. She continues without waiting for his response. “Jung Jaehyun's existence intersecting with mine.”

 

To her utter disgust, Jaehyun not only passed the audition and snagged the lead role, he actually did so brilliantly that no amount of bribery could make her theatre teacher, Ms Kwon change her mind about casting someone else instead. Jiho knows because she did watch his final audition, but of course she sat in the furthest back row and sank down into her seat to avoid being seen by anybody.

 

“Do you think he did this on purpose to make my life a nightmare?” Jiho grouses. “Does he want to etch himself into my memory as The Official Most Hateful Person? One last hurrah on our final year before we go off to college and never see each other again?”

 

“You know, you’ve been talking about him since we got here, which was” Mingyu glances at his phone, “half an hour ago?”

 

“Irrelevant,” she says, then shoves a cherry tomato into his mouth, which he hates. At least now he understands how she feels.

 

Jiho is a rational person, so of course she wouldn’t hate a person just because. Her hatred for Jaehyun is completely justified and based on solid reasons, she’s been telling everyone, even those who didn’t ask. It’s deeply rooted from their childhood days, when 7-year-old Jiho had forbidden anyone from touching her long hair after her seatmate, who she was harbouring a crush on, complimented it. One day, however, when she turned around after hearing funny sounds from behind her, she found half her hair on the floor and Jung Jaehyun holding a pair of scissors.

 

Needless to say, she never spoke to him again.

 

She's at the library brainstorming ideas to make Jaehyun drop out of the play when she spots Eunwoo, their class rep, student body president and Jaehyun's Best Friend sitting alone with three spread out textbooks and two other books stacked on the table. Even from the back, anyone can tell he's the school's top scorer five semesters in a row.

 

“Hey,” she says with a saccharine smile as she pulls out a chair and sits next to him.

 

Looking up from the books, Eunwoo blinks at her and doesn’t smile back. “You want something from me.” A statement instead of a question.

 

“As expected from First Place,” she chuckles, perching an elbow on the table and rests her head on her hand as she looks at him. “You hang out with Jaehyun often, don’t you?”

 

“Uh,” he hesitates, looking as though he’s contemplating a lie, but model _um-chin-a_ Cha Eunwoo never tells a lie. “Yes.”

 

“That means you must know a lot about him,” she goes on.

 

Fixing his glasses, he has never looked more uncomfortable. “Look, if this is your attempt to use me to gain blackmail materials on Jaehyun, it’s not going to happen.”

 

“Of course not. I wouldn’t expect you to spill any secrets of your friend’s,” she agrees, nodding and sitting back straight. Her smile doesn’t fade away, and that keeps him from relaxing. “But I hope you know that if he received a tip about an upcoming exam, he would keep it to himself.”

 

“That's fine, because Iㅡ”

 

“Yeah, but if it was you, you'd share it with him, wouldn't you?”

 

He's quiet, lips pressed into a flat line.

 

She gives his shoulder a pat and flashes another smile before she gets up. “Study well!”

 

 

 

 

The first script reading takes place a week after Ms Kwon finalized the cast. With everyone gathered, the small theatre club room feels too hot for early May.

 

Jiho holds a portable electric fan towards herself as she goes through the script. They're doing a modern take of Snow White meets Boys Over Flowers, which doesn't quite make sense to her, but Ms Kwon has always had a peculiar taste. “Would have made more sense if it was Beauty and the Beast. He has issues and everyone hates him,” she tells Bambam who is in charge of wardrobe. Similarly, he has a questionable taste, but he's also the only person who can use a sewing machine and doesn't mind using his own money to buy materials due to the school's limited budget.

 

“ _You_ hate him, not everyone,” he points out without taking his eyes off the screen of his laptop.

 

“I equal to everyone,” she mutters back, and glances at Jaehyun who’s standing by the door talking to Ms Kwon, no doubt trying to charm her with judging from the appearance of his dimples. Jiho rolls her eyes with disdain.

 

For someone who’s just here to spite someone, he did a surprisingly good job during the reading. No apparent stutter and hiccup except the one time he misread a word, which wasn’t exactly his fault because there’s been a spelling mistake in the script, which ticked her off even more.

 

Usually, she would stick around for a while to practice or simply hang out, but today she packs up her things and leaves the room as soon as they're dismissed, not even waiting for Mingyu who's talking to Yugyeom, probably discussing the choreography. Someone calls out her name from behind her, but she quickens her steps.

 

“Wait!” yells Jaehyun, half jogging to catch up with her. It doesn't take him much effort to do so, as one would expect from the basketball captain. She curses at him mentally. “What are you walking so fast for?”

 

“Obviously to avoid you,” Jiho deadpans. “Wasn't that clear enough?”

 

He laughs, amused. “Okay. But Ms Kwon told me to ask you to give me a rundown about this play and how theatre works. Be my official guide.” He moves his fingers in the air to make the quotation sign.

 

“She can do it herself.”

 

“She has other things to do, so she recommended you as the person with the most experiences.”

 

“If you’re really that keen, you can just go ask Boo Seungkwan. He’d be more than happy to assist you,” she tells him.

 

“But what if I want you to do it?”

 

Jiho stops on her track to lookㅡ no, glare at him. He stops too and continues to smile, crossing his arms across his chest, and she thinks it’s revolting. “This is not freaking A Walk to Remember, Jaehyun. Go back to your team, play some ball, _leave me alone!_ ” she snaps, then stalks off angrily and doesn’t stop or turn around even when he yells back, _of course this is not A Walk to Remember, you’re not dying and I’m not going to fall in love with you!_

 

 

 

The plan was to do their English project together, but Yoobin is sitting cross-legged on the floor eating pizza while Jiho is on her bed going through the results for _how to sabotage your worst enemy_ she's typed into the search engine. _Are you your own worst enemy?_ , a website suggests instead. Jiho has never felt more offended.

 

“All these results are rubbish. Avoid your enemy? How are you supposed to beat your enemy when you don’t even face them? _Forgive them?_ ” she reads scornfully. “I wouldn’t be here googling this if I was going to forgive him!”

 

Yoobin looks up. “Why are you even googling that? I can suggest you better ways,” she says, but her mouth is full with her fourth slice, so it sounds more like gibberish. Yoobin’s mother is passionate about clean eating, so the food in the household is strictly organic and fast food is completely prohibited. Ever since her mother found ramyun cups and a couple of bags of chips hidden under her bed, Yoobin would come to Jiho’s house and order the food she craves. “Spread wild rumours about him? Spike his energy drink with laxative?” she adds after she finishes chewing.

 

Jiho shakes her head pensively. “Good ideas, but not enough.”

 

“Make him fall for you and dump him?”

 

She exits the tab, shuts her laptop and groans into her pillow as his voice rings in her ears, _I’m not going to fall in love with you!_. “Why does he exist?”

 

“Probably to spice up your life,” offers Yoobin. “Wait, why do you hate him again?”

 

Jiho doesn’t even have to think about it. “Because he’s the most pretentious, insufferable and abhorring person in this universe. Not to mention lame. A loser and a flop.”

 

“He seems fine to me.” Yoobin shrugs. “Where’s Mingyu?”

 

“At Seokmin’s playing games I guess. Why?”

 

“Nothing. I thought I’d see him today. Aren’t you two always together?”

 

Jiho makes a face. “You saw him at school today.” Yoobin used to have a crush on Mingyu when they were in middle school, and Jiho thought it’s gone away after she showed her his old embarrassing home videos, but guess not. “And we’re twins, Yoobin, not joined at the hip.”

 

“Hmm,” hums Yoobin, looking contemplative, but she’s also staring at the pizza like she’s considering the fifth slice, so Jiho can’t tell what she’s thinking.

 

 

 

“For the sixth time, I'm not telling you any dirt on him,” says Eunwoo, edging his chair away when she pulls a chair and sits next to him in class.

 

“Come on, there gotta be something he did in the past that pissed you off,” she replies, and he shakes his head insistently.

 

“No,” he answers, stern.

 

She woke up an hour earlier before she usually does this morning just to specifically ambush him when he’s alone and unguarded, knowing that he’s always the first to arrive everyday, and she’s not going to let her effort go to waste. Without losing her smile, she places her arms on the desk and leans forward to inch her face closer to his. He backs away. “If you think I wouldn’t hesitate to start showing up at your house, maybe introduce myself to your mother as your girlfriend while I’m at it, you’re right,” she tells him in the gentlest manner.

 

He looks up and meets her gaze, and she can see fear flashing in his eyes past the thick lens of his glasses. “Please don’t,” he says, his face pale.

 

“Stop terrorizing my friend,” says Jaehyun when he catches her at lunch the next day. No one invited him or said he could sit with her, especially in public and broad daylight when her image and reputation are at stake. Rude.

 

Jiho scrunches her nose. “I never terrorized anyone,” she replies, trying not to remember how she deceived a boy from her kindergarten, Jeon Jungkook, into believing that crayons all had flavours, and the red ones were strawberry. It wasn't her fault that he ended up eating one. Besides, all her effort in pressuring Eunwoo only resulted in him telling her a story from two years ago when Jaehyun appeared on Entertainment Weekly’s Guerilla Date segment  for two seconds when he was standing behind Kang Haneul. That’s hardly embarrassing, but at least she finally managed to make Eunwoo open his mouth. It’ll be easier next time. "I only asked him a question."

 

“It’s almost summer, and I found him wrapped in three blankets,” he says, stabbing the straw through the thin metal lid of his yogurt. “Are you obsessed with me?” he asks, and she almost chokes.

 

“Me? Obsessed with you?” she scoffs. “Ask that to yourself. I’m not the one who signed up for this play knowing who’s gonna be in it.”

 

“I love your confidence.” Jaehyun looks more amused than anything else, and that makes her want to flip his tray even more so that his dimples will be covered with the stir fried aubergines.

 

“Please leave,” she replies begrudgingly. If none of her Ideas to Take Jung Jaehyun Down ends up working out, she’s already planning for the last resort, which is utilizing her connection (Bambam) to accidentally on purpose create a wardrobe malfunction that will go down in history as Jung Jaehyun’s Most Embarrassing Memory He Wishes He Could Delete Forever.

 

“Ms Kwon told us to get along, and we need to practice our lines together. Besides, this is our final year. If we don’t hang out now, when else can we do so?”

 

Jiho looks him dead in the eye. “Go suck a Chungyang pepper, Jaehyun.”

 

 

 

Mingyu is lip syncing _Wrecking Ball_ dramatically when Jiho comes in and turns it off. “Hater,” he huffs, plodding towards his bed and plops down on his back.

 

“Please help your sister run through her lines,” she says, sitting on the edge of the bed holding her script.

 

“Why don’t you ask your costar?” he asks.

 

“You’re my costar.”

 

“I have two lines in this musical.”

 

“Okay, and?” She blinks at him like she’s expecting more. “Mingyu, your two lines are about to be reduced to one if you don’t help me.”

 

“Don’t be stupid. Go call Jaehyun and stop bothering me,” he says, grabbing a pillow to hit her.

 

“Kim Mingyu, I raised you all by myㅡ”

 

“ _Mum_ raised me.”

 

“ㅡand this is how you treat your noona?” she finishes with a hand on her chest, like the theatre club president and lead actress of seven productions in a row that she is. She’s only older by four minutes and made him potato pancake once when they were 12, which was hard as her head. “Just one scene!”

 

He exhales a heavy sigh, sits up and turns to her. “Are you sure this play will be okay with you and Jaehyun not getting along? Wouldn’t the lack of chemistry show? Have you two even practiced together on your own? I'm worried about this production. I think you should talk things out with him.”

 

“One, there’s nothing to talk about with him. Two, I don’t even want to talk to him. And three, can we please stop talking about him?” she says. “Instead of worrying unnecessarily, it’s a lot better if you actually help me with my lines now.”

 

Mingyu rolls his eyes, then takes the script and flips to the bookmarked page. “You owe me fried chicken, _noona_. And an additional line.”

 

 

 

“Hey, Jiho!”

 

She turns around and finds Chan emerging from the mass of hungry students and half jogging towards her down the hallway. His curly hair looks tamer today than most days, which probably means he's already done with the rearrangement of songs on the musical, which he's in charge for. “What's up?” She raises her brows.

 

“Ms Kwon asked me to pass this to you,” he says as he rummages through his backpack, finally pulls out an envelope after a moment and hands it to her.

 

She looks inside and finds a ticket to a famous musical that's currently staging in Daehakro. It was sold out before she could even load the ticketing site. “Ms Kwon gave it to me?” she asks, and he nods. “Just one ticket?”

 

“Dunno. I didn't even look inside.” He shrugs, then waves at her before joining the parade heading to the cafeteria.

 

Jiho doesn't think much of it and gratefully accepts the gift as Ms Kwon's way of telling her she's her favourite student. After all, her theatre teacher has always been shy when it comes to displaying affection.

 

What she doesn't expect when she's seated inside the theatre hall, however, is finding Jung Jaehyun sitting next to her. “What on earth are you doing here?” she hisses as quietly yet irritatedly as she can through gritted teeth.

 

“Ms Kwon said watching this musical can help me. She gave me the ticket,” he replies, the corners of his mouth tilting upward.

 

 _Freaking Ms Kwon_ , she thinks bitterly. Jiho looks away and keeps her stare on the stage although it's still dark and the curtains are down, determined not to speak another word to him.

 

“You look nice,” he says, complimenting her red summer dress. She only wears it on special days or for special occasions. He is not special and not worth this dress. She glances at him while trying to come up with an insult, and realizes he's wearing a pressed white shirt with a thin black tie. “We look like we're on a date,” he adds.

 

“You should be thankful we're here where we're expected to act civilized, because otherwise I wouldn't hesitate even one bit to punch your face _after_ I punch you in the gut,” she snipes back, but he only chuckles humorously, shoulders shaking and dimples showing.

 

Fortunately, the lights dim just in time, signalling that the show is beginning, so she turns forward, bent on ignoring his existence entirely.

 

 

 

Okay, she doesn't ignore Jaehyun's existence entirely.

 

Throughout the show, she finds herself unable to concentrate, and instead keeps glancing at him. To her surprise, he doesn’t just enjoy the show wholeheartedly, laughing at the right times and even shedding tears at one point, but he also has a little notepad in his left hand and a pen in the other to jot down whatever new information or detail he’s picking up as the show progresses.

 

“Did you fall in love with me?” he asks when it’s over and the lights are back on. People are leaving the hall, and it gets noisier as everyone begins discussing the show and talking about other things but the two of them are still in their seats to avoid the crowd. She almost missed Jaehyun’s voice. She half wishes she did.

 

“What?” she squeaks, brows knitting.

 

One corner of his mouth twitches as he puts his elbow on the arm rest and cups his face looking at her. “You kept stealing glances at me. Think I didn’t notice?”

 

“You must be hallucinating. Want me to schedule an appointment at the hospital? I can do at least that much,” she shoots back.

 

“Let’s go get something to eat,” he says, unaffected.

 

Her face breaks into a scowl. “What makes you think I would go eat with you?”

 

“Come on, you must be hungry.”

 

“I'm not,” she lies, but as if on cue, her traitorous stomach grumbles. “I am, but that doesn't mean I want to eat with you.”

 

“My treat,” he says with a grin, knowing that he's won.

 

But Jiho is not going to let that happen easily. “I'll order the most expensive thing on the menu.”

 

 

 

“So,” says Yoobin as she seats herself next to Jiho at lunch. “I heard someone went on a date.”

 

“Who?” Jiho asks without tearing her eyes off her phone, uninterested.

 

“You.”

 

She does look up this time. “Me?”

 

“Yeah, you,” Yoobin replies. “With Jung Jaehyun.”

 

“ _What_.”

 

Yoobin shoves a large chunk of rice into her mouth before she takes out her phone, unlocks it, taps and scrolls here and there, and finally pushes it towards Jiho, who immediately leans forward to take a look at the picture sprawled on the screen. It's a blurry photo of a young man in white shirt and a girl in red dress, sitting across each other at a restaurant, but anyone can tell it's her and Jaehyun when they zoom in.

 

Her mouth hangs open. “I didn't know our school has a Dispatch. Where did you get this?”

 

“Yugyeom. Bambam sent it to him, and he got it from Yuju, who got it from Jihyo.”

 

“Jihyo and I don't even talk to each other,” mutters Jiho. She feels a headache building up in her head.

 

Yoobin shrugs. “She probably got it from Seokmin. You know he has the hots for Jaehyun. I don't know where he got it from though.”

 

Jiho can't register anything her friend is saying anymore. It's bad enough that she had to spend her Sunday with Jaehyun. Now the whole school knows about it. So what if he took her a nice place, his jokes were as lame as he is, and she did have a good time above all. All these years building her reputation just to have it destroyed overnight. “This is not what I want. Tell me this is a lie,” she despairs, sobbing into her hands.

 

“Congratulations, your life is a teen romcom with enemies-turned-lovers trope,” Yoobin offers. “I'll send the picture to you.”

 

 

 

Despite everything, Jiho is a professional. She still goes to practice that day and keeps her face straight even when the others (mostly Bambam) are whistling and making random ragging remarks whenever she and Jaehyun practice their scenes together. But if there's one thing worse than being in the play with her Least Favourite Person, it's having a kiss scene with him.

 

“Of course I'm not going to take that part out. It's the crucial scene in Snow White. How else are you going to wake up?” says Ms Kwon when Jiho presents her proposal after the rehearsal. Or more like she begs for it.

 

 _Alarm?_ her mind suggests. “But this is a school play. We're kids! Shouldn't things like this be censored?” she pleads.

 

“Don't be ridiculous. It’s not even a real kiss scene. Besides, you think I don't know how you kids are like behind our back?” Ms Kwon returns with her brows raised and flashes a meaning smile.

 

Jiho stares at her wide eyed and scandalized. “Nothing happened! And you’re the one who gave us the tickets!” she defends herself, but Ms Kwon just walks away like she hasn’t heard anything.

 

“I mean,” he begins, crossing his arms as he comes to stand beside her. “You could be in a worse scandal.”

 

“No one asked for your opinion,” she snarls.

 

Later, Mingyu finds her in the theatre club room all by herself, hunched over the table in the dark and taking full advantage of her long hair to cover her face. If he wasn’t already used to this kind of situation, he’d probably be scared.

 

“Are you having one of your crises again?” he asks, turning the lights and the AC on. Spring has dissipated completely now.

 

“I hate everything,” she replies. “I need to redo this life. Or maybe my previous life, because I probably committed a huge sin back then and I’m being punished for it now. Where’s the reset button?”

 

“Sorry, you’re not entitled for a refund or a do-over. Try again in your next life,” says Mingyu apathetically. He sits down opposite her, pulls out his phone and opens a game app. “By the way, have you heard about Jaehyun?” he asks while waiting for the game to load.

 

“I don't want to hear about him, Mingyu.”

 

He continues regardless. “He’s kind of in a trouble with the basketball team because he's been absent a lot? They're suspending his captaincy and benched him for the past few games. It's not really a big deal but I heard he was going for the scholarship but if he can't even play, that might not happen.”

 

Peeling her head off the table, she frowns at Mingyu and can't help asking: “Why?”

 

“Their practices clash with ours, so I guess he chose to be here.” He shrugs, focusing on his game.

 

“I thought he said he got it sorted out?”

 

“I wouldn’t know. Ask him yourself.”

 

 

 

She doesn’t, of course.

 

She does, however, still try to find out. After several failed attempts to ask Eunwoo, who’d look terrified and magically disappear whenever he sees her, and realizing she can’t ask anyone else because one, she doesn’t want to be misunderstood, and two, her pride doesn’t let her, she decides to do it herself.

 

With her face hidden a pair of oversized sunglasses Mingyu gifted her as a joke and her head wrapped in a scarf she found in their mother’s drawer, Jiho sits in the spectators seats, ignores judgmental stares and spots Jaehyun on the bench as he watches his teammates play. He looks a little sad, and she’d almost feel sad for him as well if she’s not thinking, well, he brought this upon himself. She’d heard he’s a good player and he could easily get scouted if he continued to be good. Why did he audition for this musical in the first place? As dense and simple-minded as she likes to think he is, sometimes she doesn’t understand him at all.

 

The following week, she learns that Jaehyun will not be joining them during the first few weeks of summer break so he could be with his team as they approach the final rounds of the championship. It’s not surprising, honestly, but as she rehearses her scenes with Jungwoo, Jaehyun’s understudy, she finds herself thinking, this is wrong.

 

It feels even more wrong when she almost raises her hand to wave when she sees him from a distance. He jogs from the fountain where he was cooling his head off down the pathway leading to the auditorium when he sees her as well. He’s wearing his jersey, all drenched like his hair. “Long time no see,” he says cheerfully. “How’s practice going?”

 

“Never been better,” she answers curtly.

 

He chuckles. “You didn’t miss me or anything, right?”

 

“You wish,” she scoffs, but his smile doesn’t dim. If anything, it just grows wider.

 

A sound of whistle pierces through the humid air, coming from the field when the soccer team players are training. “I did,” he says just as she’s about to turn around.

 

“What?”

 

“You know, I saw you that day, at the game. You came, right?”

 

“ _What?_ ”

 

His mouth stretches into a wide grin. “See you in two weeks, Jiho,” he says, patting her shoulder, then turns away to jog back to the gym.

 

Jiho keeps watching his back until it completely disappears out of sight, and she continues to stand there even when she hears a long, shrilling whistle sound, until a soccer ball hits her head.

 

 

 

Bright fluorescent lamps greet her when she opens her eyes later. Feeling the loud thudding in her head, she squints her eyes against the lights and glances around the unfamiliar room.

 

“Are you okay? Can you remember your name?” a voice asks from her left side, sounding nervous and a little desperate, so Jiho glances sideways. It's Mingyu in his yellow training suit. He holds up several fingers. “How many fingers are these?”

 

“I told you not to wear that training suit, didn't I? You look like a rubber chicken,” she points out, scowling.

 

He rolls his eyes and sits back down on the plastic chair. The panic-stricken face is gone completely. “I guess I worried over nothing.”

 

“What happened?” she asks, trying to sit up but her head starts thumping as soon as she moves. “Am I at the infirmary?”

 

“You don't remember? You got hit by a soccer ball.”

 

“Ah.” That explains the pounding, she thinks. “Is there a bump on my head? I hope it doesn’t show.”

 

“Is that your concern?” sighs Mingyu, unlocking his phone to continue the game he was playing before she woke up. “By the way, you still need to get a proper check up at the hospital just in case. I called mum and dad and they’re on their way.”

 

“What about the play?”

 

He scrunches his nose and rubs the tip with the back of his finger. “Uh, I think you’d need to sit out of practice for a few days at least.”

 

“Oh no, Ms Kwon would be furious,” says Jiho with a dawning horror. Despite her mild temperament and gentle facade, Ms Kwon can be terrifying when she’s angry. There’s a legend in the theatre club about her getting several teachers to fail a student—the lead actor—who disappeared a week before the big show. At least Jiho’s not doing this on purpose, so there’s hope for forgiveness.

 

 

 

By the time she gets better and returns to rehearsals days later, Ms Kwon has bags under her eyes that can put Louis Vuitton to shame and looks like she’s about to collapse from stress any time soon.

 

“Lord,” she mutters, turning from Donghyuk, who she was yelling at for painting the set with the wrong shade of green, when Jiho taps her on the shoulder. He takes the chance to escape.

 

“Jiho is fine, Ms Kwon. I’m not a god,” Jiho grins at her. “Probably a goddess.”

 

Scoffing, Ms Kwon hits her on the arm, just lightly. “I thought I was going crazy,” she says, hands flailing in the air. “I was thinking maybe this show is cursed. Last week Sungyeon lost her voice, then Chan lost one of the music scores, then that happened to you.” She pauses and exhales a heavy sigh, shoulders drooping. “And now my leading actor dropped out.”

 

Jiho blinks. “Wait, who did?”

 

“Jaehyun. He came to see me yesterday and said his team made it to the finals and it’s on the same day as our show. Since the game will be in Mokpo, he won't be able to make it back in time.” She sighs again and walks off while mumbling something under her breath that sounds like _maybe I shouldn't have casted an athlete after all_.

 

And normally, Jiho would've jumped in right there and then and say “See? You should've listened to me.” Normal Jiho would've screamed in delight and celebrated the occasion. But this Jiho, who might have been affected by the soccer ball incident, feels a little disappointed.

 

 

 

The days leading up to the show passes by more or less in a daze. The final rehearsals are as hectic as anyone can imagine imagine. In between perfecting her scenes, helping the prop team with the set, calming Ms Kwon down when she's about to have panic attacks, as well as doing her summer homeworks, Jiho doesn't think about Jaehyun.

 

At least not until early Saturday, when, while fighting sleepiness on her way to the auditorium for a full dress rehearsal, she spots a bus outside the school and a group of boys waiting to board. And among them, there’s Jaehyun, in plain t-shirt and trainers with a gym bag slung over his shoulder.

 

It's funny how she had gotten used to having him around and seeing him almost everyday in the past months. But now seeing him back with his friends, back to his life before it was entangled with hers for a short while, he feels like a stranger again.

 

“Are you okay? Does your head still hurt?” asks Mingyu when Jiho makes another mistake that day.

 

“I think there's something wrong with me,” she exhales a deep sigh, sitting in the corner of the stage with shoulders hunched. “Do you think I should sue the dude who kicked the ball at me?”

 

He passes her a strawberry milk as he sits down next to her. “Nah, I think I know what's wrong,” he says, then starts sipping on his melon milk. After building up suspense for a good 10-second, he lets go of the straw and looks at her. “You're just missing you-know-who.”

 

“I don't miss Jung Jaehyun!” she hisses, scandalized. Her voice is louder than intended, so several heads turn in their direction.

 

“I never mentioned a name.” Mingyu is grinning at her, and for a brief second she regrets not kicking him more when they were kids and she could get away from it. She still hits him regardless. “It’s okay. You can miss your real life leading man. I don't judge.”

 

“My _what_?”

 

“Your hero. He's the one who took you to the infirmary the other day.”

 

“He _what_?” Her voice gets louder again, but this time the others don't turn around again, and neither does she care.

 

“Stop making me repeat things, it’s unbecoming. I know you heard everything perfectly clear,” he huffs, then hops off to the floor with his now-empty milk container and turns to her to put a hand on her shoulder. “Anyways, I think he likes you. Why else would he go through all that trouble to be in this play and put up with you? And why else would he go bother Jungwoo and prac— never mind. My point is, maybe it’s time to stop thinking using your head and start using your heart, sister.”

 

Jiho jumps to her feet as well and smacks Mingyu’s head. “I think you’re the one who needs to start using your brain, brother.”

 

 

 

She’s taking a peek at the audience seats secretly through the gap between the curtains, partly to look for her parents but mainly curious to know if it’s barren as some of them feared. Fortunately, it’s actually almost a full house, and people are still coming in to fill the empty seats. She even spots the boys from the soccer team coming to give their support as a form of apology for the incident.

 

Despite the nonsense Mingyu spat out the previous day, Jiho manages to collect herself in time for the play, after what feels like an entire lifetime since the first day it was announced. It hits her when she’s gathered in a circle with the rest of cast and crews, and Ms Kwon to her right that this is her final play before she graduates from the school, and as she glances at Jungwoo to her left, no Jaehyun to get in her way either.

 

Though, if she was to be honest, she thought he would at least send a simple “good luck” text message, but of course she shouldn’t have expected anything from someone dense and simple-minded like Jung Jaehyun.

 

There’s two minutes left before it starts, and Mingyu taps on her shoulder when she’s on standby. “Hey, I just want to tell you this quickly: whatever happens, don’t panic.” It’s a string of rushed words, and he leaves as soon as he says it, so Jiho doesn’t even get to ask what he means or if it even means anything. Without thinking much about it, she gets onstage.

 

The first act, where the daughter of a rich family gets exiled after protesting against her family’s corrupt ways of doing business, goes smoothly. The stage dims during the interval, and when the next scene begins, a strangely familiar voice fills the hall.

 

And then Jaehyun steps in.

 

Too busy trying to process what's going on, Jiho doesn't realize she's been keeping quiet when it's her turn. Jaehyun stares at her expectantly, but she continues to be silent even when he kindly repeats his line. Right then, she sees Mingyu standing on the side on the stage holding up a sketch pad with the line that she’s supposed to say written on it, and that’s when she finally _gets_ what he meant.

 

“You could’ve told me? A word of warning would have been nice? Instead of making me look like an idiot who forgot her lines?” she howls at Mingyu when she’s backstage during another interval, using the same sketch pad to beat him. She would have done the same to Jaehyun too, but unfortunately he’s in the next act, so she’ll save it for later.

 

“He wanted to keep it a surprise! Even Ms Kwon didn’t know so you’re not that special,” Mingyu tries, but it’s not the wisest defense even if he asked someone else. He’s only saved from being beaten any worse when Bambam and Dahyun intervene and remind them not to ruin their outfits and makeup.

 

“You're gonna _get it_ , Kim Mingyu,” Jiho says before she walks off, seething, and doesn't look back even when he yells back, _it's not my fault!_

 

 

 

The rest of the play goes without a glitch. Jaehyun delivers his lines and even the songs perfectly like he's never been absent in the past weeks.

 

Unfortunately, it dawns on her a little too late that Jaehyun being back also means she will be doing That Scene with him. _Shit_ , she mutters under her breath as she lies there in her stage-bed reflecting her fate. Maybe it was better with Jaehyun out of this show after all.

 

She shuts her eyes tight and holds her breath as he leans, but when she hears him chortle, she peeps at him with one eye. The distance between their faces takes her by surprise, but she keeps her face straight. “What,” she says, keeping her lips’ movement minimal so no one else would notice.

 

“I’m just thinking that I was in Mokpo this morning,” he says in a low voice. “And now I'm here. And you probably wouldn't believe all the things I've done just to be here.”

 

“Why?” she can't help asking. “Why do you bother?”

 

His face is just inches away from hers now, and he's looking straight into her eyes. “Isn't it obvious already?” he asks, tilting his head aside, and flashes his dimples.

 

Jiho opens her mouth, no longer caring whether the audience notice anything, but before she can say anything, he's already moved his head away.

 

“It's time to wake up, Snow White.”

 

 

 

In the midst of all the frenzies right after the curtain call, Jiho sees Jaehyun slipping out of the backstage quietly. Held back by congratulatory wishes and hugs, she only manages to get away much later and he's already nowhere to be found.

 

And as it turns out, she doesn’t see him at all for the rest of summer break. At least not until at Ten's party, a week before school resumes. She wasn't going to go, partly because she doesn't even know this guy besides the fact that he was supposed to graduate last year, but mainly because she knew Jaehyun is going to be there. But Mingyu has taunted her, and Jiho is quite an easy person to goad.

 

Contrary to anyone's (her) expectation, she doesn't find Jaehyun at the center of the party. Instead, she finds him sitting by himself in the courtyard fiddling with his phone, looking bored.

 

“I thought you'd be inside doing shots like a loser,” she says, settling down near him, but not near enough to give anyone the wrong idea.

 

He seems surprised but delighted to see her at the same time. “We’re not supposed to drink,” he says, pocketing his phone.

 

“I know that. I was just saying,” she replies, rolling her eyes. “You're so boring.”

 

“And you sure hold grudges for a long time,” he suddenly says, laughing a bit as he looks at her. “Are you honestly still angry at me for what I did when we were six?”

 

“Seven,” she corrects him. “That, and you're also the most annoying person ever, especially with your lame humour and your lame personality and your lame _face_. Everything about you is absolutely revolting.”

 

“You really think about me a lot,” he says, amused. She groan and almost gets to her feet to leave when he stops her, catching her wrist. “Hey,” he goes, looking at her with a gentler smile now. “I know it’s long overdue now, but I’m sorry for cutting your hair. I knew you liked Kim Woojin then, and I didn’t want him to like you back. Honestly I didn’t want you to like him either.”

 

Jiho’s eyebrows knit in confusion as she frowns at him. “Why?”

 

“Isn’t it obvious already?” he asks. It’s the same question from that night during the play, the same teasing look in his eyes, the same smile. But instead of leaving it there like the last time, he continues. “I liked you then,” he tells her. “And I still like you now.”

 

She stares at him. Out here, away from everyone and everything else, with the only source of light being what spilled from the living room, it feels like the entire world has been warped out, and it’s just them in this vacuum of time-space. It’s the most cliché thing to think about. “You said you weren’t going to fall for me” is all she says in return.

 

Jaehyun lets out a chuffed laugh. “You seriously remember the weirdest things.”

 

“Yeah, and you're the lamest person. Who even disappears and then shows up out of nowhere like that? And you're telling me now you've liked me all these years?”

 

He's still laughing. “Your face is really red, Jiho.”

 

“I really hate you,” she groans.

 

“I’m glad,” he replies, taking her hands that she’s covering her face with so he can look at her. “I like you enough for that.”

  


 

He tenses up the second their eyes meet, and quickly turns away and tries to leave, but Jaehyun manages to grab his shoulders just in time to make him stay.

 

“I come in peace,” Jiho tells Eunwoo, taking a seat across him while Jaehyun sits next to him.

 

“What do you want,” Eunwoo says begrudgingly. It’s not a question, and she can tell his guard is very high up.

 

She glances at Jaehyun, who nods supportively, and exhales a sigh before she turns to Eunwoo again. “I’m sorry for pesteri—”

 

“You were _harassing_ me,” interrupts Eunwoo.

 

“—before. I didn’t mean to scare you off like that. I’m genuinely sorry.”

 

He keeps silent, but doesn’t stop turning his head back and forth from Jiho to Jaehyun like an android robot. Then he pushes his glasses and goes back to his book. “Fine.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> *um-chin-a: mum's friend's son, a term referring to the perfect kid your mother usually compares you to


End file.
